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WHY WE STUDY HISTORY 



PREPARED FOR THE 

EXTENSION DIVISION OF 
THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 



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Carl Russell Fish, Ph.D. 

Professor of American History 

The University of Wisconsin 



MADISON 

PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY 

First Edition 



Copyright 1921 by the University Extension Division 



APR 20 1921 
©C1A615052 




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Correspondence-Study Department 

UNIVERSITY EXTENSION DIVISION 

The University of Wisconsin 



Why We Study History 

In llicsc days when so many students in schools and col- 
leges are studying history, how many ask themselves why 
they are doing it? If one tried the experiment of asking such 
a question, a great many would undoubtedly reply th^at they 
were doing it because it was the thing to do. Others wouiJ *^ay 
that they were studying it in order that they might laterv 
teach it. Some few would admit that they liked the stories ,' 
they learned. 

A generation ago, however, it was scarcely true that to 
study history was the thing to do. It received very little at- 
tention in school and college, and was hardly considered a 
dignified study. Of course this meant that there were not 
many positions for teachers of history and that reason for 
studying it did not then exist. Moreover, the men who have 
given history its present position have not as a rule been good 
story tellers. 

What is the reason, then, for this change in the position ' 
which history enjoys in the educational system and in the 
opinion of the public? 

Many arguments have been used to emphasize the impor- 
tance of history. For instance, that it gives the individual 
many facts which will be useful in later life. This argument 
has been greatly exaggerated. History does not repeat itself, 
and the application of historical facts to present-day life 
is not at all easy, and is sometimes dangerous. Moreover, 
most people forget the facts they learn in their college courses 
in history, and on the whole it is a good thing that they do. 

Another argument which is used very much at the present 
time is that history inculcates patriotism. This is at least a 
very difTicult aim to give it, because if history is truthfully 
taught one finds that one's country has at times been in the 



wrong, and if it is so taught as to make one's country always 
right it is not truthful. Moreover, if history is taught 
with this aim, the tendency will be to make the teaching of 
the history of other countries a constant comparison in 
which all the advantage will be given to one's native land, 
and thus national animosities, or at least dislikes, will be 
encouraged. 

Still another argument that has been urged in its favor is 
I hat it teaches morality, but here again the same difTiculties 
occur. What seems to us right does not always triumph; and 
will it encourage morality to teach that at times the wicked 
are triumphant? 

What Is IIist!orjJjz::^htrsini])lcsl way of answering this 
(juestion^as to why we should study history is by considering 
whatMslory is. And to this ([uestion again many answers 
kave been given, all containing some element of truth: as, 
that history is the science of origins; or that it is past politics; 
-TJreven, looking at il from another point of view, that it is a 
serious pastime. 

The most comi)rehcnsivc and at the same lime the most 
significant delinition seems to i)e that histor> is the expe- 
rience of the human race, and that recorded history is the 
memory of the human race. Its value, therefore, is of exactly 
the same character as the value of experience and memory 
for the individual. 

ylX we think for a momcnl what life would be worUi without 
the memory, we can get some idea of w hat civilization today 
would be worth without history and a knowledge of history. 
What would friendship mean without memory of past strug- 
gles in common? What would home mean without recol- 
lections of the common family life? What would one's 
home town mean without a memory of the life one had 
lived there. It is precisely in this way that history contrib- 
utes to make one at hcvne in the world, and a person with a 
knowledge of history hasquite the same advantage in proving 
himself to be a useful citizen as the man of experience has in 
any community. .John Selden put the matter very exactly 
centuries ago when he said: "The neglect, or only vulgar re- 
gard, of the fruitful and precious part of it (antiquity) which 
gives necessary light to the present in matters of state, law, 
history, and the understanding of good authors — is but pre- 



f erring that kind of ignorance which our life alone allows us, 
before the many ages of former experience and observation 
which may so accumulate years to us as if we had lived even 
from the beginning of time." That is exactly it. We study 
history, for the purpose of putting old heads on young shoul- 
ders. 

Let us illustrate how this conception of history bears on the 
suggestion that history teaches patriotism and morality. No 
one loves his brother or his chum because he has always been 
right or because one has never quarreled with him, but be- 
cause through many disagreements and through many quar- 
rels one has become intimate with his real underlying char- 
acter and has found it good. So, in the same way, if we live 
through the past of our country it is not necessary that we 
find it always right, but that we come out with a feeling of 
common experience and common aim toward good things. 

In the same way with morality: The right has not afways 
won. It never will always win. But we do fi'ud that one side 
seldom has all the right or all the wroni,, that one side seldom 
wins entirely; that no conscious etlort is lost. We find that 
in human experience the same law applies as in natural sci- 
ence — that all energy is conserved; that all deeds, good ar.-d 
bad, have their consequences for the indefinite future. Can 
there be any greater incentive to right conduct than an in- 
creasing knowledge that our conduct, right or wrong, will in- 
fluence the future indefinitely? 

One valid argument for the study of history is that it is 
necessary if we are to understand the world we live in, if we 
are to understand ourselves. The world of the present mo- 
ment is not independent of the past; it cannot act exactly as 
it wishes. Neither can we separate ourselves entirely from 
the past. It is just as dangerous not to know about history as 
it is not to know about electricity. In order to understand 
conditions today we must understaj^ the meaning of forces 
roundabout us — the forces of physics, the forces of chem- 
istry, and the subtle forces coming from the past experience 
of mankind. 

Historical Method. — There is still another fundamental 
argument for the study of history, which is so important 
that many writers take no other into account. History, from 
one point of view, is the experience of the human race; from 



another point of view it appears that history is the recorded 
experience of the human race. But from still a third point of 
view it may be said that history is a method of recalling the 
past, just as geology is a method of studying the physical 
past of the earth. No one should study history simply as a 
record, but should always make some personal effort to re- 
cover some past human experience and to record it for the 
benefit of others. A mastery of this historical method is thus 
one of the great advantages which one should expect from 
the study of history. 

Historical method simply means a method of ascertaining 
truth. It is in many respects exactly like the method of dis- 
covering truth in any other line, such as in any one of the nat- 
ural sciences. But it differs from the natural sciences in one 
important particular. In history the evidence is based on 
human beings. Whether it be written or traditional or oral, 
/tfiefeifi always some human element; and human nature has 
always been alike in this at least, that it never records abso- 
lutely accurately. Hi,story, then, can never be as exact as one 
of the natural sciences. On Ihe other hand, if one acquires 
aptness in using the historical method it is of extraordinary 
ii+ility in everyday life, for precisely the same methods are 
nece^^sary to ascertain whether a seventeenlh-century letter 
writer or an ancient Roman lawmaker is telling the truth as 
are necessary for sizing up a proposal made by an insurance 
agent or an application for a position. Historical method, 
then, is the best combination of scientific training and 
everyday utility that is afforded by any of the standard 
academic courses. An expert historian can get the truth 
even out of a modern newspaper. 

The great historian Gibbon writes in his autobiography: 
"In the infancy of my reason I turned over, as an idle amuse- 
ment, the most serious and important treatise; in its ma- 
turity, the most trifling performance would exercise my taste 
or judgment; and more than once I have been led by a novel 
into a deep and instinctive train of thinking." This rep- 
resents the aim of the student of history, but until one has 
reached maturity, one should be careful of one's diet. The 
student should begin with two kinds of material. First, come 
the sources themselves: the first-hand reports of the witnesses 
of events; journals and debates of legislative bodies, letters, 

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diaries laws, reports, speeches, and all the varied forms in 
tich'flrst-hand' evidence is recorded, ^e use sources not 
because they are free from error and contam all the truth, 
th y a e fun of prejudices and of the om.ss.ons resulting 
from imperfect observation. They are, however, the raw 
r^XriTl of all history, and the only way of ascertammg the 
Uuth is by studying them, comparing them, Putt'^g «"/- 
elves in the places of the writers, and winning the truth by 
oatirn skill in handling the fallible evidence of human be- 
fngs We should remember that a great deal of what we ord.- 
nartiv read is source material: most of the books we read m 
?oregn language courses, speeches of candidates for office, 
party plal"orml manv books of adventure. In studying any 
peiodM history it is absolutely essential toward an under- 
standing of the spirit of the age, to read sources; and nothmg^ 

" Nextlhe'student should read the works of competent his- ^ 
torians who have studied these sources, wmnowed pme 
wheTt from the chaff, and worked the whole mto a narrative 
Cd toother by cause and effect. The object o this kmd 
of reading is twofold; first, to discover what the t™th is, 
and second, to find out how the truth is ascertained from the 
sources One should, therefore, be careful to use the work 
only of the most competent men. This means in most cases 
Z^ modern books, generally, in the case of books in English, 
those of the last twenty-five or thirty V--' ?>?» f ^^\^^P " 
f erred; for historical method has improved of lal« f<^^r"='> 
lels than the methods of the natural sciences, and the body 
of truth has been enormously increased. . , , • u 

At er becoming thus familiar with the materia ou of which 
history is made, and having acquired good habits of sepaiat- 
o the true from the false by association with those who have 
put good habits into practice, one should extend one s range. 
Thefe are manv great men of the past who have written his- 
^0 -not so carefully and efficiently as the moderns but with 
greater intellectual power. Every student should acqu re 
some familiarity with the great interpre ers of history 
Th^icydides, Tacitus, Gibbon, Ranke, Motley, and others. 
He should not be interested in the fact alone, but even more 
should he be interested in the meaning of facts. 

The result of historical training should be to enable one to 
read anything without being misled, and to find increasingly, 



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as Gibbon did, that almost everything will contribute some- 
thing toward a knowledge of the past, and toward an under- 
standing of the present. 

Point of Attack. — "Human experience" is a pretty broad 
term. If one wishes to arrive anywhere in studying it, one 
must have some point of attack or one simply beats the air. 
On the other hand, one must not too consistently study his- 
tory from any single point of view. Experience is not simple; 
history is not simjjle; life is not simple. In trying to make his- 
tory too simple one is in danger of losing all of its value. 
There is no one exclusive method of getting at history, any 
more than there is one pink pill which will cure all bodily in- 
firmities. 

In order fully to perceive the truth of history it must be 
viewed from many different aspects. Some persons have 
tried to present history from the point of view of geography. 
It is true that the conditions of the country do explain part 
of the experiences human beings have had in a particular 
locality. They fill up one segment of the complete circle of 
possibilities; but they leave a large portion of the circle un- 
explained. 

Others have emphasized — many have overemphasized — the 
economic life which has grown up on the basis of this geog- 
raphy. If we know the geography and the economic life, 
we have filled in two large segments, but we still leave much 
of the circle unexplained. Neither of these can be neglected, 
but neither of them is entirely comprehensive. All of these 
forces, geography, economic life, and all other forces, such as 
heredity and social conditions, have to pass through in- 
dividuals before they take form in action. The individual, 
consequently, sums up all these forces and fills in the circle 
representing complete human experience. 

One cannot, however, study all individuals. For practical 
purposes one can profitably select or study at most times and 
in most countries those individuals who were selected in each 
time and place to represent the community — that is, those 
who dominated what we call the politics and thought of the 
time. In a way, then, the selection of politics as the best point 
of attack on the past may be justified. Politics represent the 
conflict of individuals, and in order to understand the indi- 

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J it is necessary to bring in the economic, the geograph- 
and the social forces which made them what they were. 
Topical or Chronological Method. — To ascertain the 
iriith about the past is a scientific study; to preseat the ttHlh 
is an art. Consequently, there is indefinite freedom for the 
individual to select his own methods and to adapt them to the 
particular subject with which he is dealing and to the people 
whom he is to address. It is sometimes advantageous to pre- 
sent events as they occurred, one after another, but many times 
this is very confusing and involves endless repetition. In 
such cases it is better to select one topic after another and to 
run them through a considerable period. One of the best 
illustrations of the overemphasis on the chronological method ^ 
is in the study of United States history, where so many his-i 
torians give the history of successive presidential administra- 
'•^ijis, in each case repeating much of what went before. 
,w{ere has been, therefore, of late a greater tendency to se- 
lect topics. 

On the other hand, every science must be subject to its own 
peculiar spirit, and the very breath of history is that it occurs 
in time. The time element is always important, and the top- 
ical method must never be carried so far that the sense of 
continuity and the sense of development are lost. One of the 
greatest benefits of history is to get a sense of poise, of cause 
and effect, of continuity, of the relation of the present to (he 
past, and, consequently, to the future. Whether the human 
race progresses or not may be a question, but there is no 
question that it develops, each generation growing out of the 
past with changes that are produced by a continuing evo- 
lution. 

Period. — At the present time there is a great effort being 
made to study all history. It would be very desirable, if it 
could be done, to give the present generation a comprehen- 
sive understanding of the total progress of mankind. This, 
however, is extremely difficult because we know so much 

out the past that no one human mind can ever contain it. 

3reover, the development of history has not been one, but 
^s been indefinitely subdivided, different lines of develop- 
ment often having little relation to each other; and the prob- 
lem of presenting them all together and at the same time 
leaving any definite impression on the mind is beyond the 

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artistic capacities, as well as the time capacity, of the i 
race. History, then, must be studied by periods and by i 
such as countries. 

^- Such periods should be long enough to give some idea oi 
devcTopffient. In this respect few subjects offer the advan- 
tages that English history does, where a period of obviously 
connected events runs so far and with so little break and so 
independently into the past. 

Every student of history, however, should at some time 
study some particular period which is short enough for him 
to know intensively; for no one can get the full benefit of 
history without having lived in some part of the past, without 
knowing the men and their problems well enough to under- 
stand and sympathize with them and to feel the difllculties 
which they felt as they sat together at the council table. If 
on3 passes through experiences of this kind in the past it is 
•^ot necessary to remember all the events, any more than 
; necessary to remember all the exercises one takes on the 
athletic field, in order to have the advantages of physical 
health and alertness which come from them. Every his- 
torical student, then, should at some lime devote himself to a 
period short enough to master. 

It makes no particular difference whether the period se- 
lected be remote or near at hand; the fundamental thing is 
that it be a period which can be known intimately enough so 
that one can get into the hearts of men. It is always the hu- 
man element in history which gives it its special place in the 
curriculum, and the essentials of human nature remain un- 
changed. Periods like the Age of Pericles, like the Age of 
Cicero, will always and continually be of value because we 
can sit at home and in the market place with men of that time 
and really know them. And if we succeed in knowing the 
men of any other time or place than our own, we have 
strengthened our ability to deal with life as we see it about 
us. We have an angle from which to project our planes of 
life in the world. 

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.Statue of IJncoln on the University Campus 
Weinman, Sculptor 



Pharmacy f^^ 

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